(Sorry for the delay in getting these written up but I had an incredibly busy week last week)
In the last talk we looked at Aslan and his character, the nature that is so truthful that he can't help being himself and that he therefore can't spare us what he naturally is. Him, trying to be his way with us, gives us a honest relationship with him, which is critically important.
Taken from the Horse and his boy we read this:
“I was the lion.” And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”
“Then it was you who wounded Aravis?”
“It was I.”
“But what for?”
“Child,”said the Voice, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no-one any story but his own.”
Exactly the same happens later in the story, even through the stories. So why is it important that no one is allowed to know any others stories?
This is echoed through in the gospel of John 21:20-23
Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”
He speaks only to each one in their present moment.
Throughout the stories we see many moments when we see Aslan talking to characters and that we are not allowed to know what they are being told.
In the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe we see Aslan talking to Edmond, where Edmond had tried to wreck the alliance by joining and supporting the White Witch. When he meets Aslan you read this:
There is no need to tell you (and no one ever heard) what Aslan was saying, but is was a conversation which Edmund never forgot. As the others drew nearer Aslan turned to meet them, bringing Edmund with him.
“Here is your brother,” he said, “and–there is no need to talk to him about what is past.”Edmund shook hands with each of the others and said to them each in turn, “I’m sorry,” and everyone said, “that’s alright.”
You see the same happen to Puzzle the Donkey in the Last Battle.
This is showing that the words of Judgment are never known because of the relationship with Aslan, the position of Aslan to a guilty soul. Which is perfectly appropriate, as we will never be in that same position as Aslan.
How many other examples in the stories shows the times when Aslan judgements, implies and even shows that there is nothing more to be said? Visually, quite a few.
The truth about the hard questions that we get, the truth about ourselves, is never easy to cope with, it is always difficult, and often we see that the pretence in our lives when facing the truth.
This is seen very clearly in the story of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader with the character Eustace. The poor boy is turned into a dragon by the choices he has made. He gets to the point where he is injured and comes to face to face with Aslan, which for him, is like a dream, he says that he came to a deep well which he knew he had to get in, but he needed to strip the dragon layers, the scaly skin off of him before he got in.
This imagery for me that really hit me, and I will be honest hurt.
Earlier that day Candy and I had rented the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and when this scene came on it was different and I hope to discuss the differences, because when the Archbishop was talking the films visual interpretation got to me more.
Before Eustace gets in the well, he tries incredibly hard to strip down his layers, he rips them apart from himself time and time again, until he loses count. (This is very clearly him saying that he is stripping himself of sin to the get into the well is a very symbolic baptism) In the film they approached it differently. Eustace (the dragon) is on a beach, Aslan approaches, Aslan very gently claws into the sand and a claw in print goes across the dragons chest. Eustace screams. This happens three more times. Then finally with the dragon skin not falling off Aslan settles his legs into the sand and roars, so loudly, with so much strength. This is the same roar that we see him use when he turns stone statues to life, the roar that brings us life!
This upset me, Aslan being so powerful, in a comparison to God, tried to strip away the layer of sin, but couldn't. It took something so powerful to do that. It truly made me see how much our sin, our pretence can stick to us, creating a layer of someone else. Possibly to the point that I have really been overly thinking of sin and the way it affects us since.
Aslan/God doing this stripped away and undress our spirit with painful nakedness, forming and restoring ourselves to our humanity. This just reminded me of the verse in Revelations 21:4
"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
We can build these layers on in so many ways, but one that was mentioned is the form of self deceit, the lies that we tell ourselves, which again is echoed throughout all of C.S.Lewis's stories.
This one to one experience for me showed that is why we don't hear others stories, because the power and strength needed to help with our own is enough. It hurt Eustace to strip in the story, it clearly hurt Alsan to strip Eustace in the film. But this just shows that we will always be told the truth however painful, that the truth is only shown by God.
We will never hear or see a story that makes us acceptable to ourselves. We need to be acceptable and accessible to Alsan/God stripping ourselves infront of Him.
We can only do this by only knowing our own story.
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